By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
BILLINGS, MO – Ally Barton had quite the eventful day Saturday.
Three hours after qualifying for the Class 1 cross country state championships at the Hermitage district meet, the 5-foot-10 Liberal junior helped lead her volleyball team to a thrilling, five-set victory over Billings in the quarterfinals (25-23, 25-22, 18-25, 21-25 ,16-14).
A capable runner, Barton ran an extremely conservative race to make sure she had enough energy left for the afternoon volleyball matchup. While her time of 22:46.58 was nearly three minutes slower than her personal best, it was still enough to finish 12th and move on to the state meet.
“We just wanted to qualify, so we made it a strategic race,” Barton said. “I just kind of went easy and made sure I qualified, then I had to come over here, and we knew we had a hard game to play.”
And play they did.
The Bulldogs raced out to an early two-set advantage, largely behind Barton’s solid play at the net.
“(Barton) is a stud athlete,” Liberal head coach Kim Spencer said. “She just had to coast in the race today to qualify, and that’s what she did, because she knows that this team is very important. We’re all about everyone in our program, so she made it work for us and we very much appreciate it.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE MATCH
Billings would rally in the third and fourth sets, largely behind solid defense, a 9-0 run to close out the third set and senior hitter Kyla Essick’s violent swings at the net.
For Spencer, the huge momentum swing to force a fifth set was nothing new to her team. Liberal needed five sets to defeat Jasper in the district final, and then another five to down Archie in the sectional round.
“We’ve done this before,” Spencer said. “The last three matches we’ve played, we’ve worked on this. I’ve been with this senior group now for four years, and we have worked on the mental aspect of the game daily, and it’s really paid off.
In the fifth set, both teams traded scoring and momentum back and forth throughout, until Billings finally got an advantage after a huge block from Essick made the score 14-13 and forced a match point.
“We just said go back to what we were doing in the first two sets,” Spencer said. “That worked well for us – keep doing it, keep hitting the ball at them.”
A controversial line call tied the score up once again, and then Barton took over, notching back to back kills to send Liberal to the final four.
“We’ve been fighting for this all season,” Barton said. “If you make a mistake, you’ve got to learn from it and move onto the next ball, because it’s a fast and furious game, so you just have to be ready to move on. We’ve had our goal set, and it was just amazing to finally finish this match.”
Up next for Liberal (18-8) is Nov. 7 semifinal matchup against Bismarck at the final four in St. Joseph.
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF THE MATCH
For Billings head coach Brady Greear, the monumental comeback rally showcased just how resilient his team has been this season, with hard-fought victories over Blue Eye, Galena and New Heights.
“Losing’s always tough,” Greear said about his postgame talk with the team. “But, at the end of the day, who would have thought we’d be here? You’ve got to be proud of yourselves. Not many teams can come back from being down 2-0 in a quarterfinal game like we did. I know losing is bad, but there’s no reason to hang your head. You’ve got to come out with your chin up, because that’s one heck of a run.”
The Wildcats end the season 25-11-4.
Seniors Essick, Emma Garbee and Georgia Vesci will all graduate this spring.
